SCRANTON — The city plans to hire Waste Management of Dunmore to process recycling materials for five years starting early next month.
Scranton City Council on Tuesday unanimously introduced a resolution from Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti to authorize the city to contract with Waste Management to perform recycling processing.
The proposed contract stems from the city having recently requested proposals from vendors for processing of recyclable items.
The new arrangement would offer stable pricing and service for Scranton for the next five years and result in enhanced recycling collections for residents, Cognetti said in an announcement Friday. It would reduce the cost per ton of many recyclable materials and allow residents to combine cardboard and mixed paper for collection twice per month.
“We are committed to creating a healthier community for our children and our neighbors,” Cognetti said. “We are making changes at the city level, and encourage residents and business owners to make improvements to their systems to increase how effectively we recycle used materials. Small changes at each household can add up to a healthier community.”
According to the announcement:
• The contract would keep processing done locally and allow the city to take advantage of a regional market rate for recycled goods, while capping the cost of commingled plastic, metal and glass to no more than $96.65 per ton, the announcement said.
• Corrugated cardboard and mixed paper will once again be picked up together every other week, with no cost per ton of recycled fiber products. The city would also start accepting #5 plastics — the kind often found in plastic bottle tops, margarine tubs and yogurt containers — to expand the type of materials that residents can recycle in commingled blue bins.
• These improvements deliver results that Scranton residents requested in a 2024 Lackawanna County Recycling Survey, including: an increase in the frequency that cardboard recycling is picked up (66%); opportunities to recycle more types of plastic (15%); and fewer paper-only recycling collection dates (15%).
City DPW workers would continue to collect recycling, but instead now would take it to Waste Management’s facility instead of the county recycling facility, where the materials currently go, city Communications Director Christopher Hughes said in responding to a question from The Times-Tribune about the new arrangement.
If the legislation for the contract passes, the administration anticipates combined paper/cardboard pickups to start the week of July 7, Hughes said.
Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to introduce the resolution, with council President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster all in favor. The resolution likely would come back before council for a vote on adoption at its next regular weekly meeting this coming Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
According to the legislation:
• The city received two proposals for the recycling processor services, from Waste Management and J.P. Mascaro & Sons of Dunmore.
• A selection committee recommended the city contract with Waste Management, which the city deemed as the lowest-cost and most-qualified responder.
• Waste Management proposed a dual-stream service at a cost of $96.65 a ton for commingled items, and no charge for paper/cardboard. Waste Management also offered a single-stream service proposal at $113.85 a ton.
• Mascaro proposed a single-stream service at a cost of $150 a ton.
• The city decided to go with Waste Management and a dual-stream service.
Residents with questions about recycling services can email Scranton Recycling and Safety Coordinator Chris McClatchy at recycle@scrantonpa.gov.